Waterhouse shows 'Passion for Snow' Sanford native highlights Dartmouth's history of skiing in new documentary

By Shawn P. Sullivan

Sanford News Editor

Thursday, February 21, 2013

SANFORD — Stephen Waterhouse used to ski down the snowy hill of Kilby Street when he was a boy growing up on Oxford Street in the 1950s. Little did he know, as he whisked through the neighborhood with a cold winter rush brushing his face, he was sowing the seeds of what one day would become a lifelong passion.

After graduating from Sanford High School, Waterhouse attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and earned two degrees, a bachelor’s in chemistry and a master’s in business administration. From there, he embarked on a business career that started with Procter & Gamble and then led to international assignments with Avon. He married his wife, Linda, and they had two children, a son and a daughter.

Throughout these years, Waterhouse kept close ties to his alma mater and pursued his passion for skiing. In fact, Waterhouse wrote a book about Dartmouth alumni that he published in 2004; during his research, he discovered that Dartmouth and its students, nestled as they are in the snowy climes and hills near the Vermont border, have been a leading force in the world of skiing for decades.

“I thought to myself, ‘I wonder how deep this goes’,” Waterhouse recalled during a phone interview on Tuesday evening.

Waterhouse eventually expanded this revelation into a book, “Passion for Skiing,” which he published in 2010. Now he has adapted that book into a new documentary film, “Passion for Snow.”

It’s his first film — but he’s a self-described “doer of projects,” completely comfortable with venturing outside his comfort zones, and he is satisfied with the result and the response it is generating.

“This one is fabulous,” he said. “I’m really pleased with the result.”

Waterhouse and his production company, The History of Dartmouth Skiing Project, LLC, held a successful premiere for the 62-minute film before a sold-out crowd at Dartmouth College on Feb. 9.

“The audience was ecstatic over what they saw and learned about the diverse role played by thousands of people from (Dartmouth) and the local community in all things to do with winter, particularly the development of all aspects of the ski industry,” Waterhouse said in a press release after the event.

The film opens with a familiar shot for anyone who makes watching animated television specials a part of their holiday traditions. The Grinch — the creation of Theodor Geisel, a Dartmouth graduate known forever as Dr. Seuss — is seen sledding downhill into Whoville. That village of wee-sized Whos eventually fades into an old photograph of Dartmouth. The film ends on a similar note, with a fade into a modern-day shot of the college.

“The idea is that the story we are telling is still going on,” Waterhouse said.

The film is a series of vignettes showcasing Dartmouth’s and Hanover’s contributions to skiing throughout the decades. Among those profiled is Percy Rideout, an avid skier during his Dartmouth years in the late 1930s who went on to serve as captain of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division during World War II. The division took a mountaintop from the Nazis in Italy, Waterhouse said. In the beginning, skiers had to be skilled mountain climbers, he added, because the ski lift, such a convenience for modern skiers, was only introduced in the 1930s.

Rideout contributed to the film but passed away a couple of weeks before its premiere earlier this month, Waterhouse said. Waterhouse added that a quote from Rideout, heard at the end of the film, makes certain Dartmouth’s lasting impact on skiing.

“It’s clear to me it all started in Hanover,” Rideout says.

The film also features many Hall of Fame skiers, such as Maine natives John Litchfield and Bill Briggs, as well as numerous Olympians and other athletes and innovators.

Right now, Waterhouse, a London resident, is in Vail, Colorado, his family’s favorite skiing spot since 1984. Waterhouse will next present his film in Vail on March 2 and in Hanover the next night. From there, Waterhouse is working toward showing the film in such major venues as New York, Boston, Los Angeles and even Tokyo, London, and other international sites. He’d like PBS to air it as well.

Anyone who is interested in purchasing a DVD of the film can contact the production company’s treasurer, Mike Gonnerman, at either michael@gonnerman.com or 3 Ripley Road, Hanover, N.H. 03755. The cost is $32 — $28 for the DVD, and $4 for shipping.

Waterhouse’s parents, J. William, known as “Bill,” and Evelyn, lived on Kilby and Oxford streets here in Sanford for most of their lives. They moved to Square Pond in Acton when they retired. When Waterhouse zipped down Kilby Street as a boy, he used the same skis that his mother and aunt used to “slide around the Sanford area” in the 1920s. Evelyn Waterhouse passed away a little less than two years ago, and is now buried — perhaps appropriately, Waterhouse notes with affection — in the same local cemetery where she skied as a youth.

“It’s all about being outdoors and communing with nature,” Waterhouse said about the sport that once enthralled his mother and has so influenced him. “It’s wonderful.”